Video of Nov. 2 Special Council Meeting Released On City YouTube Channel
A video recording of the Nov. 2 Special City Council meeting, days before three members of the former Council were replaced in the Nov. 7 election, was released Thursday (Jan. 18).
The recording was uploaded to the city’s YouTube channel, but not added to the meeting calendar like other recordings are. City Manager Robert Belleman told ELi today (Jan. 19) the video was not posted sooner due to an “oversight.”
The meeting, which was almost entirely held in closed session, shows Councilmembers Noel Garcia and Dana Watson, Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg, Mayor Ron Bacon, City Attorney Anthony Chubb and Belleman sitting around a conference room table talking before the meeting starts. Garcia, Gregg and Bacon have since left the city ranks. Other city staff can also be seen in the video, including East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson. The video has lower quality audio than most Council meeting recordings.

Most of the 2-hour and 16-minute video is just a notice that Council has gone into closed session. For about the first 11 minutes, officials are gathered around the table conversing casually.
The meeting was held at City Hall, instead of the Hannah Community Center.
The meeting then starts, with Council excusing then Councilmember and now Mayor George Brookover’s absence with no discussion. The agenda is approved with no discussion.
Bacon asked if there was communication from the audience, which there wasn’t. Notably, the meeting was held in Conference Room A at City Hall, not Council’s usual meeting room in the Hannah Community Center. The meeting was held on a Thursday and added to the city calendar the day prior with no public announcement.
Bacon then read the items to be discussed in closed session and Council left the room for nearly two hours.
When Council returned, four different motions carried unanimously:
- To approve the tentative Collective Bargaining Agreement between the City of East Lansing and Capital City Labor Program East Lansing Police Department Supervisory Division, dated Nov. 1, 2023.
- To accept the recommendation of the City Attorney in the matter of Country Mill Farms, et. al. v. City of East Lansing, United States District Court Case No. 1:17cv487 and provide him settlement authority in the requested amount.
- To accept the recommendation of the City Attorney in the matter of Ronk, et. al., v. City of East Lansing, Ingham County Circuit Court Case No. 2200042NZ and provide him settlement authority in the requested amount.
- To partially waive the attorney-client privilege regarding the report drafted by Randall Secontine dated Oct. 31, 2023, limited to issuing the attached statement.
If approved, this statement would then be read:
The City Council wishes to advise the public that the independent review authorized by the City Council and conducted by Randall Secontine found that assertions of charter violations contained within the anonymous complaint were without merit. The City Attorney concurred with this determination. The report is attorney-client privileged and will not be made public to protect the identities of those that cooperated with the independent review, and to allow the City and its employees to move forward with providing services to its citizens.
Then Mayor Ron Bacon commends members of Council and new city manager.
After the four motions passed, Bacon took a point of privilege to commend other members of Council, some city staff members and wish the recently hired Belleman well.

“This is a pretty select group here,” Bacon said. “Thank you all for your service. I’ll make a formal statement on the fourteenth if we’re still part of that. Tammy [Verchereau, assistant to City Council], you’re the absolute glue of this group and I don’t know how we, keeping us on track, making sure we’re on time and…”
“Making sure we show up to the right room,” Gregg interjects.
“Thank you so much for everything you do,” Bacon continued. “I know it’s sometimes thankless, everything you do to keep this Council together. To this Council, all the individuals who stepped up and, if we do get to the fourteenth I’ll formalize this for that record, but it’s a really brave group and I can’t think of anyone who’s just sitting here, wanting to serve during these times, and for you guys to step in and serve…”
Garcia, appointed to the Council earlier in 2023 and who was on the Nov. 7 ballot but went on to not be elected, raises his hand to the laughter of the group.
“To Robert as well,” Bacon said, pointing out the newly-hired city manager. “Hopefully, we’ve done enough to make sure you’ve a clear path to success, and just kind of remove all the barriers that were laid out and just hope you have the best opportunity to move forward and be successful in your role.”
Bacon finishes his remarks, pointing to Gregg, who said, “I didn’t know we were doing remarks,” to laughter.
“I love you all,” she said. “It’s been an honor.”
The meeting video was not posted sooner due to an “oversight.”
Assistant to the City Manager Asia Siev sent ELi a statement from Belleman today (Jan. 19) to explain why the meeting recording was just now posted to the city’s YouTube channel.
“The posting of the November 2 Special Regular City Council meeting video to YouTube yesterday was an oversight,” Belleman wrote. “The November 2nd City Council meeting was recorded by city staff. The City Clerk’s Office was focused on the November City Council election. Recently, a member of the public stated that there was no recording of the meeting, which we knew was incorrect. When staff checked to verify the recording was posted to the city’s website, they realized it had not been. Staff proceeded to upload the video.
“The city typically relies on our contractor, Video Professionals, to upload the video recordings of our City Council meetings,” the statement continues. “However, the November 2, 2023, Special Regular City Council meeting was held in Conference Room A at City Hall because the Hannah Community Center space was unavailable. The city recorded this special meeting on a camera to the cloud.
“I apologize for any inconvenience this matter has caused you and the citizens of East Lansing,” Belleman’s statement concludes.
Minutes of the Nov. 2 meeting have still not been approved.
For more than two months, the minutes for this meeting have been in limbo. At the Nov. 14 Council meeting, the first after the election, newly-elected Councilmember Mark Meadows motioned the minutes not be approved.

“There were four members of Council who were not present at this special meeting,” Meadows said, referencing the three newly-elected members (Meadows, Erik Altmann, Kerry Ebersole Singh) and Councilmember George Brookover, who was absent. “I would like an opportunity, personally, to meet with the city manager, which I’m doing tomorrow, to get a better feel for what happened there. I feel uncomfortable approving minutes where I was not involved.”
At Council’s next meeting, Nov. 28, the special meeting minutes were briefly alluded to. At the start of the meeting, Meadows said he believed the special meeting minutes should be on the agenda to be approved. Brookover responded vaguely.
“No, I’m deferring those to a future date,” Brookover said.
Since then, ELi Founder and former Investigative Reporter Alice Dreger has spoken about the minutes at two Council meetings, saying the Council is violating the Open Meetings Act by not approving the minutes.
Meadows responded to Dreger by saying the minutes will be available to the public.
“We are making them [the minutes] available to the public at some point and the statute does not actually require us to do that,” Meadows said at the Jan. 9 City Council meeting.
In an email response today (Jan. 19) to questions from ELi, Meadows said he does not know why the minutes have not been back on the agenda. He said he had believed they would be back on the Nov. 28 agenda.
This is a developing story, which ELi will update as more information is obtained.